That's right.  After you set up your Vista Media Center, you have the ability to view your local TV listings, set up a recording and stream media from your Media Center PC, from anywhere you can connect to the internet (even your Windows Mobile Phone).  The ability to watch media from your PC (Television) from another location is also referred to as "placeshifting".

You can get the same functionality from Slingmedia products (without the cool internet content Media Center has) or from SageTV (for a price tag of around $99), or you can get it free with MythTV, but you have to have a Linux system (and again I say none of the alternatives have as nice an interface as Vista, but that's a personal opinion).

The way to get this functionality is through a free plug-in call "WebGuide."  There are other plugins, such as Orb, but I am choosing WebGuide because the guy who wrote it has been hired by Microsoft, so I have to believe it will be the most compatible/supported.

What can you do?  Well, from anywhere with a live Internet connection, you can:

1.  Set up recordings on your local cable/over-the-air programming..

2.  Stream your media (music, photos, video, recorded TV shows) from your computer or a computer connected on your local network.

3.  Stream LIVE TV to any computer

For a guy like me, who is on the road a lot in places where the hotels just don't get the TV I want to watch (no, don't let your mind wander), this is a fantastic solution.  And I can say that it works very well even if you home network is wireless (which mine is).

The only tricky part can be getting your router configured correctly to allow the media to stream.  But I'll get to that below.

Easy install

To get started, make sure you download the WebGuide plugin from their site.

As you can see, they have Microsoft Home Server on the way (!).

You'll notice at the bottom of the page a list of supplemental files that you can download.  I suggest downloading the PowerDVD decoder and ACS3Filter at a minimum.  As the web site explains, these are sometimes needed to view streaming video over the Internet.  I have found it is true on my system.

Once you have downloaded the utility and begin to install it, you will immediately get a dialogue box asking if you want to install the UltiDev Cassini Web Server for ASP.Net 2.0.  This is a "lite" web server that WebGuide uses instead of IIS to host the WebGuide internet interface.  Choose to install.

Once the server is installed you are brought to a wizard which guides you through setup.  Follow the wizard to complete the setup.

Once setup is complete you will see a dialogue box to that effect.  Notice a check box which says "Launch WebGuide Configuration Tool".  This should already be checked.  If not, check it.

When you click close, the WebGuide Configuration tool automatically launches.  Note: when I follow these steps I got a warning from my trusty advisor that a program was requesting Internet access.  If you get this same message, be sure to tell it to unblock the program.

The WebGuide configuration interface comes up with a status bar in the right-hand corner that shows the progress of loading the Cassini Web Server and other related services.  Eventually you will come to the Welcome page (and I do mean eventually.  Even with a Dual Core computer with 4GB of RAM this thing takes a little time).

From here you can pretty much follow the documentation on their Wiki, which you can access from the "Help" link.

Setting up the Internet connection.

Please note: If you have a cable or DSL Internet connection, you should have the ability to use this service.  I have heard issues with cable companies blocking traffic for stuff like VOIP, but I haven't had any issues with this at all.

One area of configuration I would like to touch on before I leave you is the Internet connection.  In order for Webguide to work, you have to open up ports through which your media can stream, as well as giving you access to the WebGuide interface.  If you do not currently have another web server set up with a web site running, then you can configure port 80 as your HTTP port.  Some people may want to use a less common port for security reasons.  You can use any available port you like, but if it is anything other than "80″, you have to add the port number after your IP address or URL like this www.dynamicdns.com:1010, or 207.46.192.254:1010.  Neither of these are actually WebGuide installations, of course.

I tend to throw caution to the wind and use port 80 for my web interface since I do not have another web server running from my home network.

You must also set up a port for the actual media streaming.  For this I use port 1080 for no other reason than it is easy to remember in case I have to troubleshoot.  But again, you can use whatever port you would like that is available.

Finally, you need to be sure that you have allowed access to the WebGuide through your Windows Firewall (or firewall of choice, such as McAfee).  When you first install the Cassini Web Server you should get messages from Vista asking to you grant access.  Make sure to do this or you will need to go back in and configure it manually.

Also, once you choose the ports you will be using for the service, make sure you set up Port Forwarding on your router of choice.

If you have a Universal Plug And Play (UPnP) compatible router, you can choose to let WebGuide configure the router for you.  You can also have WebGuide configure your Windows firewall to allow the correct access as well.

It sounds like an involved process but it is actually fairly painless.  The only tricky piece is getting the ports configured correctly.  After that, you are home free.

Enjoy!